Underrealm

Soltana

Soltana Dreamed.

She stood alone in a massive hall, the ceiling stood several hundred feet high. Chandeliers made of ornate brass emitted a deep blue LED light. The walls were lined with brass design and black stone. She could see for some distance, the hallway faded to black beyond her line of sight. Wherever she was, it was enormous.

“What is this place?” She pondered.

She looked down at her hands, finding her body to be a massive twenty-foot silhouette, just like the other dreams.

“Are you an Anform?” A voice asked off to her side.

A woman was rocking on her heels absently, eyes like saucers in amazement at the large being in front of her.

Soltana turned, seeing the tiny woman. She stood around five and a half feet, wore an ornate blue robe trimmed with black. She had a heart-shaped face, inquisitive green eyes, and a slight tan. She sported strange glasses and had her nutmeg hair down.

“Hello. I am unsure, my memory is having difficulty,” Soltana admitted to the stranger.

“I know how that is, break your silly ankle once and poof goes a memory,” She complained with a jest.

“I’m Tettra!” She said confidently, sticking her hand out. Her smile wavered at the sudden awkwardness of trying to handshake an ethereal thing, however, she kept her hand out and fully committed.

Soltana knelt down and tried to touch her hand, only to pass through.

“I am Soltana. Curious. Are you dreaming, too?” Soltana inquired.

“I am, although it is strange I’m dreaming of where my calling is.”

“Where?”

“The Archaeology guild, House Cyaxares in the Basilica Conurbation of Saint Peter on the planet of Magara of the Donthos sector,” Tettra explained a mouthful.

“Ring anything?”

Soltana shook her head.

“Only unfamiliarity.”

Soltana made sure to keep that data stored away for later. Everything in the dreams were important, so far.

“As am I- with these hallways… I mean,” Tettra said as she stammered, looking around the long corridors.

Tettra stared back at Soltana, cocking her head and raising her eyebrows suggestively.

“Well? I’m guessing we should explore!” Tettra announced as she walked in a direction chosen arbitrarily.

“Why that way?” Soltana asked she glanced back, seeing the other direction was a mirror of where they were headed.

“Because we’re in a dream. I’ve noticed they’re always telling us something! They’d never lead us to a dead end,” Tettra said, assured of herself.

When they hit the dead end, Soltana stopped to peer at the strange symbols along the wall. She made sure to save that for later.

“They’d never lead us to a door…!” Tettra telegraphed, looking around. Silence answered her.

She let out a sigh and studied the wall.

“See, Soltana? This is a map. We’re here, that star symbol there is artifact storage,” Tettra explained as she stood on her tippy toes to point to the star on the top right of the map.

Tettra stood a head shorter than the bottom-most portion of the wall map. Soltana loomed in, studying the symbols.

“And- Hep!- Here is the main- Hep!- Library!” Tettra added, jumping up to point to the top left portion of the map.

“So you know about all of this?” Soltana inquired, looking down at the tiny woman.

“Some of it. Well- That’s the strange part, The map I know of was only those top two portions, the Library and where we’re at; artifact storage. So that must mean…”

“More rooms are hidden?”

“Yes! And we’re on the other side of the wall! I would guarantee we’re one wall away from artifact storage.”

“But how did entire portions of House Cyaxares become lost?”

“Maybe those in charge had forgotten,” Soltana theorized.

“But the map on the other side of the wall is incomplete. Why? And how can we get here?” Tettra pondered out loud, rubbing her chin, sporting a furrowed brow.

“Absent or damaged?” Soltana inquired.

“Absent! It’s like it was never put in; just bare rock beneath the library and artifact storage. I can’t believe it, a lost mystery only a few feet away!” Tettra said, swaying back and forth.

“Then there must be a way to open this wall or circumvent it,” Soltana concluded.

“Hey, you’re pretty clever, are you sure you’re not an archeologist?” Tettra replied with a smug grin.

“I am not sure what I am, or where I am,” Soltana explained, lowering her head in thought.

“I’m sorry, Soltana. Maybe these dreams will reveal more.”

Tettra’s face screwed up as if something plain dawned on her.

“Hey wait a micron! How can Anforms dream-” Tettra began but was cut off.

Soltan was now floating in space again. It happened within a second, jarring her. She took in the sights of nebulas, stars, and galaxies in the distance. She could feel his presence, just behind her. She felt a shiver in her being, her very theonware. She turned, seeing the massive white supergiant with a deep black corona.

“Soltana, my beloved. It is time. You have been restored enough to receive my gift.”

“Adonai, what gift?”

“This one,” Adonai explained cryptically.

Soltana was pulled into the surface of the white sun. She did not struggle as heat closed in on her, crushing her with the sheer force. She experienced a new feeling, one of intense pain on her forehead. A crushing pressure that threatened to burst her skull of adamantite. She cried out in shock of this new experience. And then it was gone. She opened her eyes and found herself now just outside of the sun’s reach. She felt her forehead and felt something.

It was a symbol. And not any symbol. It was,

יהוה

Adonai explained further.

“You have my mark. The Seal of the Tetragrammaton. This will allow you to access my kingdom, order my servants, and use my artifacts. This will allow you to aid in protecting others.”

“How can I do such a thing, my God? I am still crippled.”

“The first Seal Holder will meet you. You are the final to gain my Seal. Both you and three other Seal holders will meet. Do not lose heart. Your identity is that of The Guardian. You must all meet before I can lead you further. Many are lost, not yet known, captured, or enslaved to their own ideals.”

Adonai began to drift away.

“Goodbye, my beloved. For my parting gift, I give you a memory.”

“Who you are.”

“You are a Lambent.”

Soltana’s perception was torn away to a planet shaped like a dodecahedron, then to a massive statue made from a planet. Her vision was dragged away to a massive vessel, sculpting planets. It was a large tireme with a huge Anform torso sprouting from the stern. What it was, Soltana did not know.

Is that me? Soltana thought.

Or a vessel I had? It looks familiar, She pondered.

A voice interjected one that Soltana did not recognize.

“You were created to create. Built to build. Artifized to artifice. Your existence was to explore, to fabricate, and to help. You have an innate knowledge of yourself; the more complete you are, the more you know of yourself and your purpose.”

“That is why my memory is returning,” Soltana said to the voice.

“This is correct,” It responded.

“The directive to you is to repair yourself, know yourself, and fulfill the calling the Lord on High has given you. May we meet soon.”

“Who are you?” Soltana asked.

The voice was silent as the dream ended.